In order to improve the performance of a golf club, golf club designers constantly struggle with ways to design a golf club that could hit a golf ball longer and straighter. Despite all the benefit generally associated with being able to hit a golf ball the longer, most golfers will agree that it is the ability to hit a golf ball straighter that most dramatically increases a golfer's ability to obtain a low score. Hence, in order to hit a golf ball straighter, golf club designers have struggled with the ability of a golf club to produce a relatively straight flight even when the golf ball is not struck at the center of the golf club head; as a golf ball struck at the center of the face of the golf club head tends to already have a relatively straight flight path. In order to design a golf club that tends to be more forgiving on off-center hits, the Center of Gravity (CG) location of the golf club head as well as the Moment of Inertia (MOI) are often two of the most important factors that can help achieve such a straighter flight.
Although numerous methods can be used to improve the CG and MOI of a golf club head, one of the most effective ways to improve such a performance is by removing weight from unnecessary areas of the golf club head and placing it at alternative locations within the golf club head. U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,202 to Igarashi ('202 Patent) gives one example of such an attempt by disclosing a golf club head having a face insert that is made of a high strength lightweight metals such as titanium, allowing the weight saved to be distributed around the perimeter of the golf club head to improve the MOI of the golf club head.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,405,137 to Vincent et al. ('137 Patent) further demonstrates the applicability of this concept into a metal wood type golf club head to increase the performance of such a metal wood type golf club head. More specifically, the '137 Patent discloses a golf club head comprising a body and a face insert that is positioned in a recess provided on the front part of the body, wherein the recess comprises of a plurality of abutments so as to create a stable support for the insert in the recess.
In an alternative situation, U.S. Pat. No. 6,814,674 to Clausen et al. ('674 Patent) shows how a face insert could be used in a iron type golf club head to improve the performance of a golf club head. More specifically, the '674 Patent discloses an iron type golf club head composed of three main components: a periphery member, a central member, and a face plate; wherein the iron type golf club head has a high moment of inertia.
Despite all the advancements in incorporating a face insert within a golf club head to improve the performance of a golf club head, the current art fails to truly maximize the opportunity to manipulate the composition and geometry of the face insert itself to further improve the performance of the golf club head. Even though replacing the striking face of the golf club with a face insert with a different insert that is constructed out of a lighter material will allow for significant weight savings, further weight savings and optimization of weight location could be accomplished by adjusting composition and geometry of the face insert itself.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,766,094 to Mahaffey et al. ('094 Patent) discloses an example of an early attempt to improve the performance of a golf club head by reducing unnecessary weight within the face insert itself. However, the method disclosed in '094 Patent may not be optimal as it uniformly removes weight from the face insert by creating cavity throughout the entire face insert itself. Uniformly moving weight from a face insert is undesirable because it fails to consider the strength and durability needs of the face insert itself. Because the face insert of a golf club head is the portion of the golf club head that is subjected to the most stress, sacrificing strength and durability at such a location may generally be an undesirable solution to save weight.
Hence, as it can be seen from above, despite all the advancement in golf club technology, the current art has been unable to sufficiently improve upon the performance advantages achievable by utilizing a face insert within a golf club head. Furthermore, the current art's attempt to improve upon the performance of a golf club head by focusing on the face insert itself is undesirable because it does so by uniformly taking away material within the face insert itself at the expense of sacrificing strength and durability. Ultimately, it can be seen from above that there is a need in the art to further improve upon the performance of a golf club head by focusing on improving the face insert without sacrificing the strength and durability of such a face insert.